Gas metal arc welding is a widely used method in a lot of industrial areas as it is cheap and produces high quality results. In the present study, peripheral blood lymphocytes of 23 welders and 25 non-exposed subjects were monitored for cytotoxicity. | C. ALAKOÇ, H. E. EROĞLU Turk J Biol 35 (2011) 325-330 © TÜBİTAK doi: Determining mitotic index in peripheral lymphocytes of welders exposed to metal arc welding fumes Ceylan ALAKOÇ1, Halil Erhan EROĞLU2 1 Department of Biology, Science Institute, Bozok University, 66200 Yozgat - TURKEY 2 Department of Biology, Faculty of Science and Arts, Bozok University, 66200 Yozgat - TURKEY Received: Abstract: Gas metal arc welding is a widely used method in a lot of industrial areas as it is cheap and produces high quality results. In the present study, peripheral blood lymphocytes of 23 welders and 25 non-exposed subjects were monitored for cytotoxicity. Information regarding the subjects’ ages, smoking habits, alcohol consumption, duration of exposure, and medicine usage was recorded. According to the results, mitotic index ( ± ) of the welders was higher than that of those non-exposed ( ± ) (P 5 cigarettes/day at least for 1 year were considered smokers in both groups. All subjects were informed of the objective of the study and gave their consent. The institutional ethical committee approved the research procedures used in this study. Chemicals Peripheral blood (PB) karyotyping medium (Biological Industries, Israel), colcemid (Sigma, Germany) and Giemsa stain (Merck, Germany) were used in peripheral blood cultures. PB karyotyping medium is based on RPMI-1640 basal medium supplemented with l-glutamine, fetal bovine serum, antibiotics (gentamicin) and phytohemagglutinin. In vitro mitotic index assay The heparinized blood samples ( mL), obtained from the subjects, were placed in sterile culture tubes containing 5 mL of PB karyotyping medium. After mixing the contents of each culture tube by gently shaking, the culture tubes were incubated in a slanted position at 37 °C for 72 h. After 70 h of incubation, mL of colcemid solution (10 μg/mL) was added to each culture tube and mixed by shaking gently. After 72 h of
